Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 May 2012
4Deputy Niall Collins asked the Minister for the Environment; Community and Local Government if any changes have been made to payment methods for the household charge in response to the payment rate to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22283/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraThere is a range of options available for persons to pay the household charge. An online system , www.householdcharge.ie, is in place in the Local Government Management Agency to enable homeowners to pay the household charge by credit or debit card. In addition, homeowners can make payment by cheque, postal order, or credit or debit card by completing the relevant payment details on the declaration form and posting it to Household Charge, PO Box 12168, Dublin 1. Instalment payments were available before 1 March 2012 for those who wished to pay in four instalments. This deadline was necessary in order to meet banking requirements for direct debit arrangements.
A bureau is in place in the LGMA to administer the charge on a shared service-agency basis for all local authorities. The Local Government Management Agency is administering the household charge system on a shared service/agency basis. In addition, 178,000 postal applications have been received in the household charge bureau, which are now being processed and this work will be completed shortly.
I am satisfied that there are comprehensive suites of payment options available to persons to pay the household charge and I have no proposals to introduce changes to the payment options currently available.
The people who have not paid the household charge to date can be placed in one of two categories: those who have a principled objection and those with a clear inability to pay. The campaign to date lacked information. There were insufficient payment methods and there has been a series of incoherent messages from the Government about payment through An Post.
Will the Minister make provision for those with a clear inability to pay? There are genuine people who see these extra charges mounting up. It is acknowledged that the charge is regressive and the nature of the flat rate means there are unemployed people and old age pensioners with a genuine inability to pay. Will the Minister consider at some stage making provision for these people? There was a proposal to extend the payment deadline to September to avoid putting thousands of people outside the law. The Minister should consider that.
There are many unfinished housing estates that are not categorised as qualifying for the waiver. What process exists for residents' associations to contact the Department or local authority? There is no visible process. What is the Minister's strategy for dealing with those household that have not paid? Just about 50% have paid.
So far 57% have paid.
The figure has stopped climbing. Just over 40% have not paid and I am making the case for those who cannot pay. What is the strategy for dealing with those who can pay but refuse to pay?
All the doomsday people on the back row opposite said only 20% would pay. I know it does not suit Deputy Daly's argument but 57% have paid.
It does not bother me in the slightest but I could quote the Minister's own predictions for payment.
We had no comprehensive database of property, which meant we could not send a bill to people. An Post did not win the tender to deliver the leaflet, another company won it, although I have concerns about the manner in which it did that, which I will deal with in another way.
The extension of the deadline to September was proposed by Fianna Fáil and I rejected that. I operate on the basis that people will come up to a deadline and then pay. That is what happened, with 25% paying within a week of the deadline. If the deadline is extended, people will wait for that deadline to pay. We will process those who decided to pay at the 11th hour through An Post and that process will be completed in the next week or two. People will then get reminders in the same way as any payment that is needed for any utility. The data sharing protocols are in place to allow local authorities to send out letters over the summer. Ultimately people must decide if they want to comply with the law or not and if they do not comply with the law, they face litigation.
I accept there were difficulties with the categorisation of unfinished estates. Only categories 3 and 4 were eligible for the exemption, estates that were largely in receivership or liquidation, or that were very badly unfinished. The survey that was carried out did not capture all of them so we have asked local authorities to look at these matters in the light of genuine errors that were made and that city managers and county managers look at those sympathetically.
Will estates that have not yet been taken in charge form part of the survey? There are many estates that have not been taken in charge that have legacy issues the local authorities are trying to address by dealing with developers.
The Minister did not address the question of those who are genuinely unable to pay, such as the unemployed and old age pensioners.
Everyone knew what the deadline was and if people wanted to pay before the deadline, they would not have any penalties to pay. I will not extend any exemptions for people who have not paid to date. They will continue to pay in line with the legislation that was passed by the Oireachtas in December and in line with what I have said on all occasions, that there would be no more exemptions for people. People knew exactly where they stood on this charge and there will be no change in that.
